"What are you going to do?" one of the Sand Shinobi called out to him
"You destroyed my dinner, I have to kill you." Itachi's cold voice said as the Shinobi closed in on the group of missing nin.
Itachi glared at these ninja that stood before him. That dinner was one that he had been expecting for two whole hours. He would show them no mercy. He rushed at the Shinobi that had asked him that question and snapped his neck in a instant, initiating the attack on the group of missing nin. Ino and Hinata tried to stand up, but found that they couldn't because the backs of their legs were burnt because of the explosion. So for the time being, the two girls could only watch from the sidelines as Hinata begun to repair their legs. While everyone else in the Akatsuki were occupied with fighting the nin, they didn't notice the two Jounin that appeared behind the two girls, one was a woman with crimson eye's, while the other was a man with a cigarette in his mouth. They pressed pressure points on the two girls necks, rendering them unconscious. The two Jounin picked up their former students and made their way back to Konoha without being noticed by the fighting Akatsuki members. The evening turned into day as the Akatsuki members were all exhausted as all the Shinobi continued their attacking on this group. Deidara looked back to see if the two girls were ok, but they weren't there. He looked around frantically to try to find his two favorite Kunoichi, but didn't find them anywhere.
"Their missing!" He yelled out, his voice booming over everyone else's. Once the rest of the Akatsuki members saw what he meant, this encouraged them to fight more to find their two Kunoichi. Its true, they had impacted all of them in more ways than just one. They had lifted up the coldness of their hearts to their fellow team mates, they had lightened up the spirits in the cave that they had all been sharing for the past few months, but most importantly of all, they had encouraged them all to fight for something other than revenge. They were fighting to protect something precious.
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Asuma and Kurenai had their students under their arms. They were rapidly making their way back to Konoha, not risking taking any breaks incase the Akatsuki decided to come after them to get the two girls back.
"They sure have changed haven't they?" Asuma asked Kurenai.
"Yes, but I'm afraid not of their changes, but of their strength that they could have gotten from them." Kurenai said as they let out a sigh of relief as the Konoha gates came into view. This encouraged them to go faster as they ran into the gates, stopping to check in with Genma as he looked at the two girls who he had taught the Chunin exams to a while ago. He barely recognized them seeing how they wore the black robes with the red clouds on them along with the headbands that they now wore.
"Tsunade-sama wants you to report to her immediately." Genma informed them as they nodded and disappeared again.
Inside of Tsunade's office there were five people there now. Tsunade looked at the two girls that were before her, unconscious still, and put her chin on her hands. She knew why they left, but decided to ask their sensei's anyways.
"Do you know why they left?" She asked them as the two girls were propped up against the side wall beside the window. The Jounin's faces went from victorious to deep concentration.
"I have no clue." Asuma said as Kurenai nodded slightly to his answer.
"You two are really clueless. While you were busy training Shikamaru tactics and Chouji how to perfect his expanding Jutsu's and worrying about them, you left Ino to be by herself, she only got to sit and watch you train with them. The only training that she got was when she sparred briefly with Shikamaru. Asuma, I am disappointed. I thought you could do better." Tsunade said to Asuma, causing him to lower his head. She turned to Kurenai.
"At least you weren't as bad, you were hospitalized, meaning that Hinata had to train with her team mates, but they were sent on numerous missions, so she could only train with herself. One cannot get stronger by training by themselves, they need someone to help them along their way." Tsunade said, Kurenai was in the hospital a lot, she would give her that.
"Sorry for if I seem modest Tsunade-sama, but how do you know all of this?" Asuma asked her
"I walk around Konoha to get to know the people better, I stop by to see how the teams are doing." Tsunade said to them
"But why would they run away like that?" Kurenai said " They were happy here." She said
"Because they want to be acknowledged, to be treated something other than as someone weak or fragile. Because of what these two did, they have probably surpassed me." Tsunade said
"But before we go to blame anyone for this, we must let them rest up. ANBU will be watching them from afar, but not too far away. Kurenai, Asuma, please be more cautious of your female team members." Tsunade said as they nodded and took the two girls towards the hospital to re-cooperate.
Two weeks later…
The two Kunoichi roused from their long sleep. They rubbed the sleep from their eye's as they looked around the room. They didn't know that the other was in there until they had made eye contact.
"Ino-san!"
"Hinata-san!" They both called to each other as they tried to move, but the pain in their legs kept them in the same spot. They didn't notice as a bored Shinobi strolled into the room, his dark hair tied up into a ponytail.
"Are you two going to be oblivious still or are you actually going to talk to me?" A lazy voice which belonged to no one other than Nara Shikamaru asked
"SHIKAMARU!" Ino yelled as she ignored the pain in her legs and hugged her long time friend, startling him.
"I-Ino, your hurting me." Came the lazy reply as he felt something moist on his shoulder. He looked down to find Ino crying on his shoulder. He put a comforting hand on her back as he let her cry. He picked her up and put her on the bed as he sat down beside her. Hinata smiled weakly as she watched her friend hug the one that Ino had really loved all this time. As she was watching this unfold before her a blonde haired Shinobi entered the room and tackled her back onto the bed
"HINATA-SAN!" Naruto yelled as he let her go and smiled sheepishly at her
"Told you that I would get you two back." He said with a smile on his face.
"Yes, I guess you did." Hinata smiled as they begun to chat for a while. Their conversations were brought to a end when Tsunade strolled into the room for the second time that day. She smiled at the two girls, feeling no anger towards them for their actions.
"Shikamaru, Naruto, can you two leave me to talk to these two please?" Tsunade asked, more like demanded from the tone of her voice. The two nodded as they left the room quickly and waited just outside of the door. The two girls lowered their heads as they knew what was going to come next.
"I know that you two have been through a lot with your team and training. Your sensei's realized that they shouldn't have left you alone while they trained your other team mates. Although some parts of your actions are understandable, I cannot forgive them just yet. I have put you on guard duty of the Hokage tower for a month before you can start to train again. However those duties don't start until seven days from now. Until then I will see how you have improved in your skills for fighting." Tsunade said as she stopped for a brief moment.
"But I do have to thank you for what you did. Sasuke left for the longest time, and he said that because of you two, he came back and is facing trials for what he did. But enough of that, what was it like?" Tsunade's attitude changed a bit
"What do you mean?" Ino asked
"Being with the Akatsuki." She said
"Well I think that the both of us would say that it actually was fun. They taught us things that we probably wouldn't learn here, and we have been trained in Taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutu daily so I doubt that it will be easy for a lot of people to try to attack us." Hinata said
"And I see they have helped you with your stuttering." Tsunade said as she stood up and pulled the beds together. Hinata and Ino tried to get up from the side of the bed but their legs hurt still. Tsunade noticed this and stood up.
"let me see your legs." She demanded as the two nodded and laid on their stomachs as Tsunade looked at them.
"You were hit pretty hard by explosive tags, I'm surprised that you can move your legs now." She said as she begun to heal their legs.
A/N I know that Tsunade was out of character that chapter but I felt like doing that, sorry if it wasn't to some likings. But hey, there was a twist there wasn't there?